Friday, March 2, 2012

Good Citizens, Presidents and U.S. Symbols

Well, this post is a little late, but better late than never right? A few weeks ago we did a Presidents/Citizenship/U.S. Symbols unit. The kids in my class LOVE learning about presidents and we had a great time. Almost all of these activities can be found in my Presidents' Unit from TpT. Check it out if you are interested!

We started off our unit with learning all about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We first filled in web using information we already knew about them plus new information we learned from books we read as a class.

We also filled out more detailed information about their lives. We talked about what events happened during their life. We also completed a VENN diagram comparing their lives.

We then moved into talking about what makes a good presidents and what qualities they should have. The kids made two class books - one where they talked about what makes a good president and one where they wrote what they would do if they were president. I think all of my kids would make awesome future presidents! :)

A good president should be respectful and care about the country.
A good president should be honest and always should tell the truth.

A good president should be a good citizen.
If I were president, I would make a speech to help the country.

If I were president, I would order things for the future.
If I were president I would give speeches. I would make the world better.

We then moved in to talking about what makes a good citizens and talking about great citizens from our country's past. We talked a lot about Martin Luther King and what he has done for our country. The kids made an adorable craft of his face and wrote about what they learned about him. Sadly, I didn't take pictures of that! We also made a citizenship book where the kids could pick a person to write about and many of my kids chose him.

Our school did a school-wide project where each class picked a famous African-American who helped our country and created a poster about them. My class chose Rosa Parks and we decorated our poster with words to describe her. Later the whole school did a parade with their posters. It was awesome!

We also made a web with ideas on how we can be good citizens and we then wrote about how we are good citizens.

Throughout this unit, my kids worked on a president project at home where they could choose a president of their choice to research. The kids did a web, drew/printed pictures of them before,during and after their presidency and wrote a paragraph about them. I was expecting everyone to choose Lincoln or Washington but I was amazed at the variety of presidents chosen: Washington, Lincoln, Madison, Obama, Reagan, Kennedy, Garfield and many more!

We ended the unit learning all about U.S. symbols! We watched some fun videos and read books about the meaning of our symbols. We used the graphic organizers from Deanna Jump's America unit to organize our learning. LOVE this unit!

The kids filled out a book from my Presidents unit about what they learned.

Hope you enjoyed our learning! Please check out my unit if you are interested in it!